Potosi, MO

Potosi, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or a recent retiree who wants to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our professional Potosi, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to show you exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or reach out to the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many Potosi, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, swimming, or other physical activities. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps prevent significant health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Potosi, MO physical therapists allow you to come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention professionals can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, have been prove to work and are customized for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a persistent injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Potosi, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Potosi, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

  1. Wear-and-tear injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as softball or soccer goalies, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, fractures, and dislocations.

Some common injuries, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Injury Prevention Potosi, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Potosi

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or instability and your body and between body parts. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to supporting joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having good posture, and the weaker set of muscles will be pushed past its limit, resulting in failure and a higher probability of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

Tailored injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in Potosi, MO will ensure that different muscles and muscle groups are equally strong.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. It can lead to:

  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficiency
  • Lessened balance

When you initially see our injury prevention specialists in Potosi, MO, we’ll go over your medical history and analyze your current movement health, strength, and flexibility. Then, in concert with with your physician or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll come up with a personalized plan of attack been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement health to reach its potential.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with slouched shoulders. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when at lest, sitting, or in certain poses they need to be in for their sport. Good posture means proper positioning of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the bones of the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and achieve the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

  • Muscle weakness
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor positioning
  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Poor muscle recruitment

By helping you understand good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.



Keys to Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to prevent one. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are precautions to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

  • Take breaks — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to engage in its natural healing processes. If you’re moderately active, rest for the rest of the day after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, safety pads and guards, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries such as bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Potosi, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other methods like making sure all the equipment is snug can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it withstand the force and torque your body is put through in sports and other activities. In your customized injury prevention program with our professional Potosi, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which allows for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more pronounced movements.
    2. It enhances circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
    3. It improves your posture, which, as we’ve discussed, is is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

    According to research, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before any physical activity to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players are taught to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to capture how you move and analyze how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body isn’t holing up well in an intense training session, don’t force it.
  • Don’t play through an injury — While teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to make sure your body heals properly and can withstand a return to physical activity.
  • Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the presence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to have a medical evaluation before starting another season or committing yourself to any strenuous activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a experienced physical therapist in Potosi, MO is a good idea for you. All of our techniques have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Potosi, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Potosi

Injury Prevention for The Elderly in Potosi, MO

Falls in senior citizens accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is a great method for reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that cause pain like arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for seniors may not be as high as an athlete, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture can greatly aid in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Potosi, MO include:

Potosi, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in something you love doing can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The knowledgeable Potosi, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to find out more about what our Potosi, MO injury prevention experts can do for you.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Occupational Therapy
    • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Cassandra Wadlow
Front Office
Dena Rose
PT, CMPT, CHT
Anthony Meyer
PT, DPT, CMPT
Derrick Wolk
Partner, Clinic Director, MPT, CMPT
Kimberly Helm
Front Office Supervisor
Lisa Bell
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.